Hurrican in the US

Ok, this morning I already started to write a topic regarding that monster "Katrina". I canceled that idea, because it is not the contry where me and my familiy live. I will not start a political discussion, that was the reason why I canceled the idea to write something about that.

If there are members those are involved to that tragedy situation, me and my family will help - for sure !!!!

But if we see the activities, done by the goverment in the US it steals our hairs. It is a shame They gave the order to shoot for people those are right now without home, without money, without water and without future. They staeal food, water, clothes and therefore they may be will die !! Sure - if they are organized in gangs and steal whatever they like, the goverment has to eliminate that, but most of them are not

Friends in the US, don`t get me wrong. I do live not in your country and I am not involved. But when I see the pictures in our TV it really steals my hair. Friends of mine living in the greater Houston, TX area and we have a very close contact to each other.

Hope our - my friends in the US will handle that really worse situation in a good way.

Good bless you !!!!!!!!!!!!

Valhalla : I aggree ! Will someone in our club will cooerdinate such a donation or will you do that, Valhalla ? Would be kind.

Falko, we will send you some money by PayPal. bus pls. make sure before, that the money goes to something that has to do with Venture people in the States. I don`t want to waste money in a big organisation where the money gets lost !!!

And pls. give me a favour. Close this topic - because I do watch many times TV and see what`s going on overthere and it really makes me sick when I see all this people without homes, money, food, water and without future. And I am wondering............. - no, I stop it will be better.

By the way, latest news about : Germany gives away a big portion from their own oil reserves. Price for gas at the moment close to 1.45 € per ltr. !!!!

All very nice to want to help, and I think we should, but the question is help who?
If we send money now without it having a destination then what is it for?

I'm all for helping our US brothers, but until I know who (if anybody) needs help then I'll hang fire.

Rudy they are not shooting looters stealing food and water from abandoned buildings, they are talking about shooting looters stealing steroes, cash and the like, and shooting any armed looters.

P.S.:

its better to get money together
to donate in one big donation :

the charity orgs have to write down details about every donation
that needs time + manpower = money !!

my question has been more about :
donate to whom ?
a) any Charity org
b) see which Members/Friends are involved and could need !


i vote for B ! give it direct to our Friends
and not a org

- when donating to a charity org - take 30-80% of the donation off !!!! thats cost for the charity org !!!
does this make sense

i prefer to give 100% to our members !!!

i worked for the Johanniter ( without getting payed for ! ) in my spare time

i was a groupmanager for a small group, but involved of the discussions from above

you have to know where all the clothes and shoes go to , when you donate them, you have to know how much they collect from your blood-donation

and you have to know where all the money is spend for Puke


ok - they are doing good things - no question about that, but what they do is done by members - normal people - who spent their spare time, and a lot of managers from above in those orgs earns lot of money !!!


BTW.: to those who believe you have to donate right now to help

are you nuts ? - what do you think where that money goes to ? - it takes month / if not a cmpl. year , to collect the money - by the needed stuff, and get that stuff to the place where its needed !

so all money donated right now - will never reach the Katrina Victims !!!
Cry
do you understand this point

it wont reach the Victims !!!

it will be spend in 2 or 3 years to the Victims of another Hurricane or Tsunami or....

do you get my point now

if I donate, I want to know and see what will happen with my money !
I will donate to someone i know !
At least someone i know is a Member of my Club !
so i `m sure it is good spent....

will you pay the nice hotel rooms for the upper class ?
i will help the Folks that really could use...

and i`m sure
if one of our Brothers done there will get all the money donated from
BIKERS around the world

and he dont need it all - r dont need it at all - he will know which neighbours could need !
and he wont make a big Press-meeting for TV in nice hotelrooms with good food and drinks to let everyone know about that we donated !

that i dont need !!!

have you seen on TV what Bush did in Beloxi ?
let people clear a part of the town where noone needed !
just to drive save through the town- with all the Press people behind him !

sorry thats perverted !!!! ( i would say the same if our Pres. would do ! )

dont get me wrong ....

every cent donated - is needed !!!

but take your brain to decide where to spent !

thats only my 2cents ( as a Member ! ) ( not as the Pres. of a Club ! )


if the Venturers the MTA and the Venturerider as a Club decide to donate to a charity Org. - then pls. give me the bankaccount of one from our members living down there
and the money collected from the
Venture Club Europe
will be donated to him....

right now

i posted a call for collect help on the guestbook of the VRCD ( german Venture Club )
hope it will last there... and will not be deleted !

i also posted a call in another not bike related forum here in germany

lets see what we all can do...

In addition to the above post, please ignore a lot of the crap about what is happenning and the fed governments response that you see in the news. Even in this type of disaster, people are trying to score political points.

Due to my other interests outside of the Venture, I actually have a number of contacts that are actually on the ground right now involved in the relief effort.

Some of the reports I get are for "eyes only" and I am not at liberty to spread them around (not due to any secrecy laws, just the honour system).

However, I have a contact who is a Chaplain in Louisiana who is involved with his church in getting relief to New Orleans and I attach here his latest update. Gives a little insight into some of the political grandstanding that gets in the way!

Quote:

I've spent the past four days organizing a whole bunch of relief projects in Louisiana, and I just have to let off steam. Hopefully you'll also learn what's behind the headlines, to a certain extent...

First, we seem to have a p**s-poor, incompetent, steaming pile of whatever posing as the Mayor of New Orleans - and his emergency management director appears to be of similarly high quality. They were completely unprepared for this disaster, despite having taken part in disaster planning, run-throughs of different disaster scenarios, etc. They ignored all the recommendations that have been made over the years, and once the proverbial brown substance had hit the rotary air impeller, they proceeded to micro-manage their own incompetence into a truly disastrous situation for their people. All of their yelling and screaming about "Where is FEMA?" and "Where's the beef?" is just a smokescreen to disguise their own catastrophic mismanagement of the relief effort. They were directing their own cops, fire department, and other emergency personnel at cross purposes, fouling up the most basic administrative tasks, and generally causing more problems than they were solving.

A good example is the issue of relief supplies, as in "Where were they?" Guess what? They began reaching the city on Tuesday morning - only to have those delivering them ordered (yes, I said ordered, on pain of arrest for non-compliance) to hand them over to City officials, who would "supervise the distribution". Needless to say, said City officials did nothing of the sort. I'm informed that some of the recent arrivals have found mounds of crates of water, emergency food supplies, etc. sitting in the blazing sun, just where they had been impounded after delivery on Tuesday, without any effort having been made to distribute them. I can only hope that this incompetence - which, to my mind, amounts to criminal negligence - finally gets reported: but my guess is that the media won't say a word about it. After all, the Mayor and most of his staff are black, Southern and Democrats, and one can't risk affecting their image, now can one?

(Please note that there is no racism whatsoever in that last comment - just realism...)

As for my own little portion of the relief effort, as you know, I've posted an appeal for funds here, and another to the High Road forum: but it's going to be hard going. Many folks are donating to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army (an outstanding organization, BTW), and other national efforts, but our smaller project is kinda lost in the background noise. Still, I can hope... it's a very important project, and I hope we can get it up and running ASAP. We've already sent out three field reps to start work, but in the absence of anywhere livable in the disaster area, they're having to go in in the morning, spend no more than two or three hours on-site, then get out (it takes two or three hours to get in, and the same to get out, given the paucity of working roads and the traffic-jam of other relief traffic). The sooner we can get them trailers, so that they can stay on-site for a few days, the better.

(If anyone's interested, an example of the sort of trailer we want to get may be seen at www.shadowcruiser.com/ff13.htm . These small trailers retail for $9,995 down here, and we've worked a deal where we can get them with sales tax and other costs thrown in for the same price. They are reasonably self-contained, with fresh-, grey- and black-water tanks, gas cooking, etc., so that one- or two-person teams should be able to be moderately self-sufficient for three or four days before having to come out to clean up and re-supply.)

I don't know how Ravens are experiencing the refugee situation in other states, but in Louisiana, it's a nightmare of increased crime and associated problems (despite the strenuous denials from many local Sheriffs and other LEO's). Here in the Alexandria area, I've personally seen many gang-banger types cruising the streets, insolently shouldering their way into shops and malls, and gathering in groups, flashing gang signs at passers-by. Local gangs seem to have gone into hibernation for fear of (highly aggressive) competition. There have been several assaults in my area, and a couple of rapes, even on Church property, and some shop-owners whom I know personally tell me that there has been a vast increase in shop-lifting. One of them who confronted two particularly blatant offenders was threatened with a knife, and when the cops arrived, she was advised to "suck it up" and "live with it", as there was nothing they could do. All local gas stations now operate on a pre-pay basis, as the rate of drive-offs without paying for gas has trebled or quadrupled since Tuesday, and most of the offenders seem to be refugees from Katrina. Again, the gas-station owners are being shrugged off by local law enforcement, according to what they tell me. (An interesting note is that Louisiana's anti-price-gouging law seems to be working well. Gas prices here aren't too bad: I filled up yesterday for $2.68.9 for regular. Seems a lot better than other parts of the country, judging from news reports.)

I'm afraid that the "criminal underclass" of New Orleans, always strong and virulent, is now being spread across many States in the region. I hope the rest of you guys in these States are taking precautions to deal with this mess, and I hope that your hospitality to refugees is not soured by the criminal antics of this underclass.

Anyway, here's hoping for fund-raising success, and for a better-organized relief effort. Sorry to rant and moan, but it's been an incredibly hectic and demanding four days so far, and the crass stupidity and incompetence of the NO authorities are at least 50% to blame for the mess you see on TV. Dealing with them is like wading through molasses... slow progress and very sticky!

Sorry I'm late getting in to this conversation, folks. As treasurer of the Venturers, I'm collecting funds for the Venturers in the US to donate in the relief efforts. The Venturers is donating $1.00 for every member in the club. Our members are also donating money to help the victims of the hurricane. Since we are experiencing difficulties with our forum right now, I've set my PayPal account aside from personal use so members can donate funds to the effort. If our European Venture family wishes to make any donations, the funds can be sent to rbesr@wideopenwest.com . If you wish to designate where the funds are to go, just add a note to your donation and I'll see to it that it makes it to the proper people. Your concern and caring is greatly appreciated.

Brent, I am sure that the European Venturers will take a
part !

Shooter : Thank you for your detailed explanation whats going on down there.

But there are still some open questions in my mind and there are still some facts that I cannot get out of my mind.

Most of you know, that I travelled a lot in the US with my bikes and that I still have a lot of friends, most of them are located in Texas, close to Houston.

I`ve been three times in the area of New Orleans. Missisippi still reminds me on a book that I read as a child.
Name of the book was : Onkel Toms Hütte - do not know the title in English. That book describes a little bit the situation what is going on down there. Most of the black people are lower educated people. People without work, money and people without prospects. Through to the desaster that they have now, they lost nearly everything.

Who is asking for those people ? Families were seperated by the goverment. They tooked them close to the I 10 under a bridge place. They had to spend there several days in middle of trash, they havn`t had enough food and water. Who has taken care of that situation ?
After they got transported by helicopters for an unknown place. Noone told them were they will go to ! Who has taken care of that situation ?

Now there are a lot of people in the Houston area. Citizien are very helpfull. Every day the citizien of Houston deliver food, clothes to those homeless people.

This is a European forum and I feel free to write down my own thoughts, since I am German. I have to live with a bad history done during the 1st and 2nd world war. But that was a different goverment and I wasn`t born, so it doesn`t bother me a lot.

We are talking not about a story that was happened in the third world. This situation was and is under the goverment of the "Supernation USA"

Do you think, that this arrogant goverment in the US will help out the black people down there in the south ? I don`t think so. but me for my own part, I will help my friends in Houston and will transfer money to them.

Sorry, they will help only lower educated people !

As I said before. I will take my part in our club and I will help our brothers in the US, but I still like to know where the money will go to !!!! For me it is not enough to have a general announcement. Me, for my own, I like to have more specific details.

Another point. Who has taken care a few years ago, as there was the big desaster in the Eastern part of
Germany ? Did someone asked, if there is a need to help ?
Just a few weeks ago, we had a simular flood drama in the South of Germany. Havn`t heard anyone who asked if members of us are involved ?

Let me end my comments with the words, spoken from the mayor of New Orleans :

I am pissed !

Mr. Bush - you are a great person !

Sorry, I am European citizien and I am surely have a different point of view !

I am not against US citizien - I have to many friends overthere and I love to ride with my bike overthere.

But what the US goverment is doing there is a shame for every human with proud and honor !!!!

Winghunter,
Could the title of the book you read be "Uncle Tom's Cabin"?